William Walsh

Getting a Slate Roof Replaced with Real Slate Shingles

Part of the charm of this house we bought was its slate roof. It really brought together the whole look of the house. We liked the Old World charm that was coupled with the new technology in the renovations the owner did. The kitchen had commercial-grade appliances and was designed to be a gourmet kitchen. The forced-air HVAC system had HEPA filtration. Well, looks and technology are nice, but slate can be a problem keeping it looking good and watertight. We had called for roof repair in Manhattan NY reaching out to a company who would work on a slate roof.

Fortunately, for us, the only problem was the roof area over the back porch. It was the only spot that needed redone. You can still buy slate shingles, but matching what you already have might present a problem. There are real slate shingles, composite ones and even metal ones if you want those. We wanted the real thing. The roofers were able to find and install shingles to redo the porch roof to make it match the rest of the house. An inspection showed that the rest of the roof was in excellent condition.

We will stick with this company that does roof repair in Manhattan NY. When you find someone who will do slate, then they can pretty much do anything. There are so many roof surfaces that roofers work with. There is terracotta tile, concrete tile, asphalt shingles, slate, metal, composite and more. There is a lot to choose from. We could have just had the whole thing redone in the standard asphalt shingles, but that would have changed the look of our house. Plus, we like the sound the rain makes on the slate roof. It reminds me of my childhood. Since we are both artists, we saved the slate tile from our porch roof to do paintings on.